Conference sneak preview!

Kerri Kokias,  conference coordinator for the SCBWI WWA Annual Conference for Writing and Illustrating for Children, is excited to begin announcing our faculty lineup! The event will be on April 13, 2014, with optional Master Classes and Critique Round Tables on April 12. We’re going to tease you a little bit and reveal our faculty slowly throughout the winter.

First, our keynoters:

• Picture book author and illustrator Renata Liwska, originally from Poland and now residing in Calgary, Canada. Renata is perhaps best known for her work illustrating Deborah Underwood’s THE QUIET BOOK. She’s also soon to be world famous for illustrating our own Nina Laden’s ONCE UPON A MEMORY, coming out in December. If you’re not familiar with Renata's work, you’re definitely going to want to check it out. Be sure to watch the video called, “A Quiet Look: How to Become a Children’s Illustrator in One (Not So Easy) Step,” which is an inside look at her incredible sketchbooks over the years.

• Franny Billingsley, the author of picture book, middle grade and young adult publications, who we're bringing from Mexico, were she recently moved to live is a quant mountain town. Frannie is  best known for her YA book, CHIME, which was a 2011 National Book Awards finalist and received 6 starred reviews. She is also on faculty for the MFA program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

• Kim Baker, from right here in our region. Kim’s middle-grade novel, PICKLE,  was a finalist for the 2013 Children’s Choice Award for the fifth/sixth grade Book of The Year the recipient of SCBWI’s 2013 Crystal Kite West award, which we will have the privilege of presenting to her at the conference.

You've got plenty of time to check out these keynoters' publications, since registration will open in early February. Stay tuned in the meantime to hear more about a really awesome lineup of agents, editors, and art directors, too.